Back control tactics | Page 3

Exactly. Strikes to the head would open up so many RNC opportunities. And the gloves do make a huge difference although I think guys like Braulio Estima, Demian Maia, Gordon Ryan, Felipe Pena, to name a few are showing that you can finish solid RNCs without having to get underneath the opponent's chin. It takes techniques time to migrate from pure grappling into MMA but I think we will see pretty soon more people just finishing the RNC through the jaw in MMA.

Demian Maia went through a several year period where he wasn't subbing anyone. Then he started finishing the RNC through the jaw and started subbing everyone again.

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I believe the biggest problem with gloves is not getting the foresrm under the chin, but actually locking up the choke, gloves get in the way, plus provide a solid surface for the defender to grab on...

I believe the biggest problem with gloves is not getting the foresrm under the chin, but actually locking up the choke, gloves get in the way, plus provide a solid surface for the defender to grab on...

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This is true, but the gloves can also act as a wedge, if you can manage to get your gloved hand deep enough behind the head/neck. It can make the choke even tighter and even harder to defend. You can use your own chin to help push the hand down deeper.

Getting your glove wedged behind their head is especially effective if you don't have the arm under the chin, It makes the face crank extra tight. If you slowly apply pressure to the crank sometimes the pressure can "pop" their chin out of the choke and give you the whole neck.

I like to practice my RNC technique on the "Century Bob" bag. The mannequin head/neck is strong enough to help develop your "squeeze."

Also for what it's worth, the level of RNC defense has never been higher due to rule sets like EBI. On the flip side the methods for grip fighting and finishing the RNC are improving at a crazy rate. I can't think of anyone in MMA right now that is using truly high level grip fighting to get the RNC and the methods to get the RNC back when Roger and especially Marcelo were doing MMA are almost primitive in comparison. Marcelo also admitted to not training to finish the RNC with the gloves on and that was a big factor for him. It was also "the worst period in his life."

A huge leap with the RNC recently has been finishing it even against a tucked jaw. And as a choke too. Not just a face crank. Here's a video on that. Demian Maia has been using this in MMA, and many of the best in pure grappling are starting to do this also. If you watch Gordon Ryan or Felipe Pena doing RNCs they don't care if the chin or jaw is in there. They finish the strangle anyways.

I see the logic of where you're coming from and I don't even think it's a bad thing. However, I think being able to take the back, ride the back, and finish from the back are skills that a good grappler should have. The back isn't my #1 go-to but as a brown belt I feel like it would be ridiculous for me to not at least have decent back attacks, control, and finishing.

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Thank you so much for shedding some light on this brotha! Gonna start drilling everything in this thread!